USB keyboard does not get current repeat rate/delay settings

[Chorca]

Having a problem with a USB keyboard on my Thinkpad. I have my repeat/delay rates on my keyboard set to a faster speed than normal, and it works great with the laptop's internal keyboard. However, upon plugging in an external USB keyboard, that device does not get updated with the new repeat/delay rates. The internal keyboard retains it's higher speed, however the external keyboard is at the default rates.
Going into XFCE settings and toggling the slider back and forth will then apply the keyboard rate settings.
The 'xset r rate 270 55' seems to work to properly set the keyboard rate, but it will revert back to the default slower settings when the USB device is replugged.

Ideally, XFCE or whatever is responsible for setting the rate on external devices would be called and set the rate when the USB device is detected and added to the system.

This bug seems to be related to this older, and fixed, bug, however it was affecting Gnome. Not sure if XFCE has a different mechanism and has to be fixed in a similar way for this to work properly:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/+bug/427168

That bug mentions that another bug was opened against Gnome here:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=610245

That was fixed, however, it does not appear to affect XFCE, so the same issue exists.

Reproduction procedure:
1. Set keyboard rate away from defaults (I am using 270 for delay, 55 for rate)
2. Verify keyboard is operating properly at new speed
3. Plug in USB keyboard
4. See that USB keyboard operates at default speed, while first keyboard operates at faster speed.
5. Change rate slider back and forth, (270 -> 280 -> 270)
6. See that USB keyboard now operates at faster speed as the initial keyboard does

System information:
Lenovo Thinkpad X220
Ubuntu 12.10
xfce4-settings:
  Installed: 4.10.0-1ubuntu2

I can gather any logs necessary for troubleshooting this issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Wirawan Purwanto (wirawan0)]

I would add a comment. I use Debian 7 with xfce 4.8.0.3, and the same bug is observed. I believe this is an upstream problem, and has lasted for many revisions.

[nanotube (nanotube)]

Same issue here, using xubuntu 12.04.

Same workaround too - tweaking the keyboard repeat rate settings a bit sets the external keyboard to the same settings.

[DaVince (vincentbeers)]

This still happens on Xubuntu 13.10. Actually, I have an external keyboard plugged in all the time and it seemed to happen whenever I restarted or woke the system from suspension. 32-bit Xubuntu, Xfce version 4.10.1.

Contents of $HOME/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/keyboards.xmlkeyboards.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="keyboards" version="1.0">
  <property name="Default" type="empty">
    <property name="KeyRepeat" type="empty">
      <property name="Delay" type="int" value="350"/>
      <property name="Rate" type="int" value="30"/>
    </property>
    <property name="Numlock" type="bool" value="true"/>
  </property>
</channel>

[Slotkenov (slotkenov)]

I have the same problem on Xubuntu 14.04

[Wirawan Purwanto (wirawan0)]

I wonder if there is an upstream bug on this problem. I can confirm that this bug is also affecting xfce4 version 4.10.1 in Debian 8. So it's not Ubuntu-specific.

[Wirawan Purwanto (wirawan0)]

Try this dirty workaround for now:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/261559/keyboard-repeat-delay-is-reset-when-plugging-in-usb-keyboard-in-ubuntu-12-10-xfc/666488#666488

This will work if you have only one or a handful of keyboards to use on regular basis, and if you are the only one using the X session on your device. Other cases can be handled by extending the scripts posted there.

FYI this issue also exists in Debian 7 that uses xfce 4.8.

Wirawan

[martron (imartron)]

This issue has affected me for years (I'm the one who posted this question http://askubuntu.com/questions/261559/keyboard-repeat-delay-is-reset-when-plugging-in-usb-keyboard-in-ubuntu-12-10-xfc/666488#666488 ). Happens every day when I bring my laptop in to work.

Gonna try Wirawan's workaround and see if I get some results.

[Charles (bityard)]

Can confirm that this is still an issue in Xubuntu 18.04.